Susan’s Book Blog

  Today is the day! Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries is OUT NOW!  You can read my full review right here  and be sure to check out author Heather Fawcett’s Instagram for a fun (and gorgeous) artistic rendering of a page from Emily’s journal!  Please check this book out if you enjoy historical fiction, gentle fantasy about the faerie realm, and sweet romances. You won’t be disappointed!

I’m starting to get into holiday reads now that we’re halfway through December. These are a few I read last year and I loved all three!  🎄 In a Holidaze is a trippy and magical time loop romance with a cozy cabin setting and big happy family vibes.  🎄 The Holiday Swap is a sweet Hallmark-style identical twin life swap with bakery goodness.  🎄 The Geek Who Saved Christmas is a sweet ‘n fluffy grumpy/sunshine enemy neighbors-to-lovers after-40 romance. I highly recommend all three if you’re looking for some cozy holiday reading!  ❤️💚 What’s on your holiday to-read list, if you have one? (I’m hoping to get to The Plight Before Christmas and A Merry Little Meet Cute.)

  Stuffed by K. Sterling If you don’t want the magic of Christmas forever sullied by images of a horny Santa Claus who brings tidings of joy and three-ways, stop right here.  This was utterly bonkers, but brilliant. I was NOT expecting what this turned out to be. I went from What the hell am I reading, to OMG THAT IS SO SWEET IM GONNA DIE. This is in turns ridiculous (in the best way), sexy (read: absolutely filthy), and incredibly sweet and heartfelt. The tone is largely tongue-in-cheek and chock full of corn and cheese - until it gets seriously (and rather unexpectedly) sincere. I don’t know how Sterling pulled this off but it WORKS. It uses every porny cliché out there but doesn’t take itself seriously, which I think is precisely why it works.  A hilarious prologue sets the stage for a series of vignettes in which Santa grants people’s Christmas wishes. There are sexy shenanigans in them all but each of the stories has a very sweet, heartfelt happy ending. (Also? Santa...

  📚  Fave Reads of 2022 Countdown  📚   🥁   🥁   🥁   🥁   🥁 #1   Something Fabulous   &  A Lady For a Duke  by Alexis Hall  I grouped these two together because I don’t know if one deserves to be ranked above the other. For me, these books are Alexis Hall doing the best work of his career. They’re very different books - SF is a hilarious, over-the-top love letter to Regency romances while ALFaD actually IS a Regency romance. (ALFaD is profoundly beautiful. And it has a declaration of love in it that rivals Darcy’s for Elizabeth Bennett.) But both books exhibit everything Hall excels at and in the most entertaining ways.  3️⃣  2️⃣  1️⃣  🎊 What did you think of my Top Ten (or thirteen) choices? Have you read any of them? Will they be on your TBR for 2023? What are some of your favorites this year?

  Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries    🧚🏻‍♂️ by Heather Fawcett 🧚🏻‍♂️ 🍄 Pub date: Jan 10, 2023 🍄 (US cover above; UK cover below) // 🍄🍄🍄🍄🍄 out of 5 // I initially fell in love with the cover (both the US and UK editions are really cool) and was amused by the title and description, and I quickly discovered that the contents absolutely lived up to my hopes and expectations. It’s charming and delightful and clever and I really enjoyed everywhere the story went. This book is the very definition of cottage core. It’s so cozy and rustic, it makes for a perfect winter read. There’s cozy fires, snowy forests and tea drinking. But it also has great characters, mysteries, secrets, danger, adventure, and a sweet romance. And it’s  presented as a journal of Emily’s experiences during her research trip. The journaling element worked really well for telling the story.   I love the dynamic between Emily and Bambleby. Their banter (or bickering) is delightful. T...

It’s Pub Day for two truly EXCELLENT books that you need to run out and get right now! One is Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian (you can find my full review and more info  here ). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The other is Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade (my full review of it - and more info - is here ). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫   If you enjoy romance, you’ll love these. I enjoyed them both immensely and highly recommend them! Both are out now - 11/15/2022 

  Cat Sebastian’s newest book,  Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots, now has a cover! And it is giving the grooviest 70s vibes. 🪩🕺🏻 Daniel Cabot is available Nov. 15! Read my review of it here .

Marlowe Banks, Redesigned by Jacqueline Firkins Pub date: Oct 25, 2022 // ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ // Marlowe Banks is an overworked, under appreciated production assistant on a TV show filming in LA with dreams of one day becoming a costume designer. She has a run-in with grumpy actor Angus on set and things don’t really get off on the right foot. They eventually get to know each other through working together but it takes extra work for Marlowe to excavate the real Angus Gordon from all the publicity she reads about him in magazines and online.  Even though this is a romance, the main story arc of the book is more about Marlowe’s journey in discovering who she is, what she wants in life, and figuring out how she’s going to get it. It has more emotional depth than a typical romcom and explores many important topics.  Aspects of the book remind me a little of Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard and Ava Wilder’s How To Fake It in Hollywood, both of which I loved. The blurb totally sold me o...

 Red White and Royal Blue The Collector’s Edition  by Casey McQuiston  Oct 11, 2022, St. Martin’s Griffin 🇺🇸 ❤️ 🇬🇧   I first read Red White and Royal Blue back in December 2020. I became a fervent fan before I had even reached the end. I had never read anything like it before. I LOVED it. I wanted everyone I knew to read it and love it as much as I did. And now… it kind of feels like they do. 😂  “They” may not be people I’ve actually met in person but I do know, now, a whole lot of people who love the book as much as I do, or more.  RWRB is the book that really started me reading again. I absolutely devoured it, and wanted more. I soon discovered “Bookstagram” and the rest is history. I now have many new favorite books and authors and a whole bunch of amazing people I am lucky to call friends - all because of this book.  👑 The special Collector's Edition of Casey McQuiston's beloved  New York Times  bestselling novel, features: • illust...

Book Mail days are always exciting and this was an especially exciting delivery!  You may have seen my recent post on A Taste of Gold and Iron. It’s an amazing book and absolutely one of my favorite reads of the year. So of course I had to have a physical copy! I googled to see if there were any special editions coming out (as one does) and discovered a couple small UK companies offering one. But of course I’d missed the bus on both as they’d both been small runs and offered via presales several months earlier. So when my Booksta bestie Ditte informed me that Broken Bindings, one of the UK booksellers offering a special edition of ATOGAI, had received their stock and was putting up for sale the limited number of extra copies they had available after fulfilling the preorders, I considered it for a bit as it was slightly out of my budget but then I caved. And I was lucky enough to snag one! And I am so so glad I did. Broken Bindings’ edition is signed by the author (and a very cool ...

  So This is Christmas   by Jenny Holiday Pub date 10/4/2022   Avon/ Harper Collins 🏔 3.5 stars out of 5 🏔 ✨ 🏰 👑 🎿🛷❄️🎄🎅🏻✨ Matteo Benz has spent his life serving at the pleasure of the Eldovian crown. His work is his life and his life, well…he doesn’t have much of one. When he is tasked to aid a management consultant who has been flown in to help straighten out the king’s affairs, he is instantly disturbed by her brash American manner—as well by an inconvenient attraction to the brainy beauty. Cara Delaney is in Eldovia to help clean up the king’s financial affairs, but soon finds herself at odds with the very proper Mr. Benz. As intrigued by his good looks as she is annoyed by his dedication to tradition for its own sake, she slowly begins to see the real man behind the royal throne. As they work together to return Eldovia to its former glory during the country’s magical Christmas season, Matteo discovers he is falling hopelessly in love with the unconventional A...

  You’re a Mean One Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky Pub Date 10/4/2022 ⛄️ 3 stars out of 5 ⛄️ This is basically a Schitt’s Creek Christmas AU. The narrator, Matthew, is so clearly written to be a David Rose-style spoiled brat that I could only picture the character as Dan Levy. He was so unlikeable it took me quite a while until I became invested. I actually considered quitting several times before the 25% mark. (Then again, it took me a long time to warm up to Schitt’s Creek as well.)  Matthew learns things about himself during his exile to his grandparents’ home. As he spends more time in the small town and with Hector, he learns that the life he previously knew was not a good one despite all its material rewards. Hector helps bring him down to earth and keep him there. Matthew’s struggles with anxiety also helped humanize him and soften his rough edges. I generally appreciate anxiety/mental health rep but it almost felt like a cheap ploy here to make Matthew likeable. It...

Roommate Arrangement  by Saxon James // 4.5 origami cranes out of 5 // Ahhhhhhh this was so good. Two cinnamon rolls + low angst + lots of yearning, sexy times & romance = right up my alley! (Me throughout most of this book:  🥹🥹🥹 ) Payne is getting divorced and moving back to his hometown. His brother suggests he move in - temporarily of course - with his BFF Beau. Payne and Beau knew each other in high school but haven’t seen much of each other since Payne left and got married. Now he’s back and Beau thinks letting Payne take his spare room will finally cure him of his lifelong crush on Payne. Sure Jan.  😏 The story is good and the characters are wonderful. I loved both Payne and Beau. Payne’s family are pretty adorable as well. Payne’s friend group, aka the Divorced Men’s Club, is super cute. They’re funny and supportive. I enjoyed their group chats and banter.  Watching Payne and Beau’s relationship grow and change over the course of the book was lovely. T...

Paris Daillencourt Is About To Crumble by Alexis Hall Pub Date: Nov 1, 2022 🍰  3.5 stars out of 5 🍰   Despite having been warned that this book wasn’t a romance or a romcom (those are debatable) and that the anxiety rep was intense, I still feel underprepared for what this book was. (Not that I even *know* what it was.) I feel almost unable to assess it properly after just one read-through. My opinion of it changed drastically several times while reading as I adjusted and readjusted my expectations. I’m not sure I can give a coherent or meaningful opinion on it right now. I’m also not sure I want to reread it so…  🤷🏻‍♀️  But I’ll do my best to come up with a review that says more than “…it was okay?”  The TV show characters are all back and even more enjoyable than the first go-round (in Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake), in my opinion. The on-set animosity between host Grace Forsythe and producer Jennifer Hallett is great. Not really sure why but I enjoyed th...